Apple Martinis All Around: "The Social Network" Rules

Published at 3:45 AM PDT on Oct 11, 2010 | Updated at 11:40 AM PDT on May 30, 2012

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It might have been a slow weekend, but "The Social Network" managed to claw out another victory at the box office. Someone crank out some appletinis.

The much-hyped David Fincher-directed film managed to fend off newcomers to own the top spot in the second weekend of its release, taking an estimated $15.5 million, for a total of $46 million after 10 days in release.

It squeaked over the Katherine Heigl-Josh Duhamel rom-com "Life as We Know ($14.6 million) and over the feel-good horse flick "Secretariat" ($12.6 million).

The impressive box office has been aided by one key viewer -- Mark Zuckerberg himself. The Facebook founder had said previously that he was going to avoid the movie, which portrays him as a complicated, socially-awkward genius.

But late last week Us magazine reported that Zuckerberg took his staff out to a screening of the film. They celebrated afterwards in the same fashion as the movie-version of Zuckerberg celebrated previous Internet success -- he took the crew out for apple martinis.

"To celebrate a period of intense activity at Facebook, we decided to go to the movies. We thought this particular movie might be amusing," a rep told the mag.

And why not? He should embrace the depiction. First of all, it pays the highest compliment of extreme intelligence. More importantly, he should embrace it because there's nothing else he can do. "Network" is officially a runaway train. This movie is going to be around for a long, long time. Might as well hitch a ride and smile.

When we spoke to the movie's star, Jesse Eisenberg, earlier in the year, he said he hoped that the Facebook guru would see the movie.

"I'm hoping if (Zuckerberg) sees the movie that he appreciates the depiction," Eisenberg told PopcornBiz. "The is not some kind of expose. It's just an interesting story."

"I have great reverence for Mark because he created this really interesting thing," said Eisenberg. "He's brilliant."